Karachi Mayor Proposes Dubai-Style High-Rise Buildings to Transform City Skyline

Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab Siddiqui has emphasized the urgent need for vertical development in Karachi as the city approaches a projected population that could place it among the world’s ten largest urban centers by 2030. Speaking at the Pakistan Population Summit, he stressed that constructing tall, multi-storey housing is essential to manage the city’s rapid population growth, noting that significant areas remain available for well-planned vertical projects.

While acknowledging that vertical construction involves higher costs, Wahab argued that it is the most practical solution for sustainable urban expansion. He cited international examples such as Dubai, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia, where new urban areas were designed for vertical growth, allowing for efficient infrastructure planning from the ground up. He also highlighted the need to transform informal settlements with innovative, “out-of-the-box” solutions, warning that conventional approaches often create legal and financial hurdles that slow development.

The mayor pointed to Karachi’s dramatic population rise, which has grown from around one million in 1951 to over 20 million today, placing enormous pressure on housing and urban services. He criticized the federal government for not adequately developing other urban centers or coastal cities like Gwadar and Zulfiqarabad, which has driven large-scale migration to Karachi and contributed to unplanned urbanization and a shortage of affordable housing.

To address these challenges, the Sindh government plans to construct 2.1 million climate-resilient houses and is offering free land to encourage organized settlement planning. Wahab urged policymakers to prioritize vertical development as a central strategy for Karachi’s future, emphasizing that timely action is critical to manage growth, improve housing availability, and ensure sustainable urban infrastructure for the coming decades.